Lord Rennard may be taking a low profile in the House of Lords for a while but in the past he has been keen to speak out on women’s rights.

He favoured legislation to exempt political parties from the Sex Discrimination Act to allow positive discrimination in choosing more women candidates. “The Bill is not about favouritism, unfair discrimination or patronising gestures for women,” he told the Lords. “It simply recognises the fact that women form the majority of people in this country but are very under-represented in many of our elected institutions. Many things must be done to address the issue of the inadequate representation of women, especially in the House of Commons.”

Lord Rennard did his bit for the cause by attending training events for young women activists in the party. The residential weekends were part of his party’s “gender balance taskforce” effort to advance the cause of equality. However, not all found Lord Rennard’s presence entirely positive.

* Talking about the sex scandal involving Lib-Dem “human octopus” Lord Rennard, David Cameron says: “It’s important they get to the bottom of it.” Would he care to rephrase that?